I decorated a couple of birdhouses THEN I looked up what the best colors are for attracting nesting birds and… whoops.

So I redecorated some birdhouses and I’m going to try to figure out how and where to install them.

From my Internet research, nesting birds want houses that are painted in hues of gray, brown, green, blue, and purple. While birds love reds, yellows, oranges, pinks, and other bright colors, when they’re trying to hide their nests and their young, they want a camouflaged birdhouse. (So if you’ve set up houses and haven’t gotten any birds, it could be due to location or paint colors.)

My birdhouses may not be the prettiest, but hopefully some birds are going to find their seasonal homes.

They’re a couple of Plaid brand unpainted wooden birdhouses. I used high-gloss acrylic paint that is supposed to be non-toxic and non-harmful. I decorated the outsides and left the interiors as plain wood. With any luck some birds will be having some babies inside them.

---

Watched the original "The Crazies" movie from George A. Romero. There’s a lot more going on than in the modern version, though some of the colors…

The blood is bright orange-red and a lot of the people look like they’re wearing fluorescent lipstick. And there’s scenes of fighting where there was obviously no contact. But still. A classic movie, in that it holds up.

If those events happened in modern times, people would be sharing everything online. Or freaking out that the Internet got shutdown.

Paranoia. Ignorance. Bad military operations. And a mutated encephalitis that scrambles your brains.

There’s a lot more information provided then in the 2000s version.

And, it’s like, they’re under quarantine, yet they’re going to break out with a girl they KNOW is infected and already showing symptoms? And her dad isn’t too stable either?

When the military guys were talking about scrambling nuclear weapons, it made a lot of sense. Especially since there’s no way for the military to set up a parameter around the whole area… it’s too widely spaced and there’s too many points where people can run through.

Plus how the sickness was spread makes more sense than in the 2000s version. The plane crashed in the hills and some of the canisters ended up in the river and the water sunk into the underground reservoir that provided the town’s water.

In the 2000s version there was a plane that crashed into the lake and nobody knew it was there. As though the military wouldn’t have been tracking their plane full of dangerous chemicals.

In the Romero version, the plane crashed and the military showed up that day. It’s just that for 6 days the military didn’t do a whole lot because the guy in town was told by the higher ups that it was a plane full of deactivated vaccine. People might get fevers or flu-like symptoms but it would be no big deal, when actually it was germ warfare run amok.

There was a lot going on in the movie, but it was pretty good. You just have to go in realizing that it was made in the 1970s.

---

Did anyone else not realize that one of the main stars of "Another Gay Movie" was Michael Carbonaro?

---

Anyways, I’ve got a trial Fandor subscription until the 15th, so I’m going to be watching a mix of horror and arthouse movies until it expires.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.
https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.

I’ve got a slurry of thoughts:

I have to wonder why all the so-called Christians are so focused on destroying the planet? "I’m a Christian dentist and I shoot lions. They’re like God’s pet cats. It makes him respond like my neighbor when I use heavy poisons around her beloved pets. Lolzzzzzz."

They like to say "This planet was made for us. God made everything beautiful and then put us in the world. He made all this for us!"

So like, they believe that God created a perfect model planet populated by all His beloved creations… and then He plopped a few humans in like someone playing Barbie dolls and eventually graduating to the Sims? And humans are basically acting like that one shithead Sim that causes someone to rage-restart the game?

He’s done a hard reset before.

And yet they’re running around causing all kinds of species to go extinct? And they’re not scared He’ll show up one day and be like "Whatever happened to the family of that one mammoth I was very fond of?"

I’m honestly very into the idea of national parks. "Public" land that is also under close protection. Actively preserved natural environments.

They keep wandering into parks and starting fires that burn down trees and areas that we desperately need for the survival of life on Earth. Like, standing at the base of THE OLDEST LIVING TREE and smoking crack and starting a fire and not telling anyone.

They believe in an all-powerful God that created a perfect world. Like, the ONLY environment that humans can survive in. And all the plants and trees were put in place to maintain that perfect balance.

And then they love to go on hunting safaris where they get to kill animals and travel to places where nobody goes and light campfires and crush the grass and really stomp around. And they hire sleazy people to lead them on their animal slaughter tour, and some of those people should not be given money.

Like, dudes that should be allowed to make enough money to survive. Because they’re the sort of people that shouldn’t be given a lot of money because they’ll harm others, but they’re also the sort that should never not have enough money.

Some people are survivors.

It means that when a situation happens they make quick assessments and sometimes even quicker actions. And their first instinct is to prioritize the people around them. Their loved once at the top of the list.

When the world is good, they focus on giving a good impression to the public. And when the world is bad, they’ll do anything to protect the things that matter to them.

And, it’s like, they created a society that cannot sustain itself without active intervention.

People okay giving ridiculous amounts of money to the military and national law officers. And never ask what they’re going to do with all that money. And then it’s a surprise to find out they use it for bribes and payoffs.

Why does this guy think he can MURDER someone as part of his job and he won’t be punished for it? And it’s like, "Why won’t they actually insure this profession rather than draining the accounts of local communities?" Why is the city, the state, the country paying off families for damages to their loved ones? Isn’t that big budget intended to cover all the sequalae of them doing their jobs?

Having to take 2-minute showers and ride bicycles on patrol might get the brothers-in-uniform to throw Erek the Strangler out of the group and off the paycheck list. Once they can’t afford fuel for their big expensive vehicles, they might start side-eyeing the guy desperate to murder a hobo.

It’s like, people say stuff all the time. Most of it’s facetious. Most of it’s momentary anger and can be ignored. But maybe the guy that literally hate-follows the group of people he wishes would all die starts doing it for real and not just online, and he carries a gun and has in-built protections from lawful prosecution… maybe that guy should not be a police officer.

"But he’s changed! I know he used to be an active member of a hate group that physically acts out their delusions of violence… but he’s different. He deserves a second chance!"

My dude: Your second chance is the fact that people are letting you live a semi-normal life.

There was something in you that let you be recruited into a hate group where you verbally abused people and tattooed your entire body with recognizable slogans of hate.

I believe in second chances. I may not like a person, but I believe they should have the option to live a better life if they’re honestly making changes in themself. I don’t ever want to deal with that person or talk to them if they’ve done something that got me riled up, but they should be able to have a second chance if they’ve really changed and are making reparations.

But there are some things that close some of the open doors around you. Certain opportunities are no longer an option. That’s the way of life: You start out surrounded by open doors and they get whittled down as you keep moving forward until finally there’s only two doors left: life and death.

When you join a hate group, there are doors that slam themselves shut and should remain shut. Because maybe you don’t need to be a school teacher or a nurse or a social worker or a cop. And if you’re really looking to make a second chance at life, you have to accept that there are some careers and life choices that are closed to you.

Because there was something in you that led you into joining a hate group.

Obviously there were some mistakes in the foundation of your character. Things that you have to actively consider and correct. And there’s no room in there to offer proper help to other people.

Because there’s always going to be those biases. The things that make you hesitate or make the wrong choice.

There are some people that really should not be around vulnerable people. They don’t handle stress well or they have questionable views that people don’t want to associate with.

_ – _ – _

Anyway:

• Beavers are amazing. I watched that document a while back about beavers and they literally preserve water and prevent floods.
• Grapes are DEADLY poison for dogs. In ANY form (fresh, peeled, raisin, jelly, wine) they can kill a dog by causing acute renal failure. // It’s like, if your dog eats a grape you have to give them peroxide and ask a vet if you need to give them activated charcoal. Because if it starts, the only hope for the dog is intravenous fluid and hoping they don’t die.
• Pineapple cores are edible and some sources say they contain cancer-fighting nutrients. Plus they provide fiber. // They also say pineapple peels can be eaten. Which means if you don’t peel your pineapple as good as you want to, it won’t kill people. So in the End Times, when you find that single pineapple: You can cut the top off to grow new pineapples while eating all the rest of the pineapple.

~Harper Kingsley

https://paypal.me/harperkingsley.

https://patreon.com/harperkingsley.

https://ko-fi.com/harperwck.
https://amazon.com/shop/harperkingsley0.
https://www.harperkingsley.net/blog.
https://kimichee.com.

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/HarperKingsley.

I should be sleeping but I can’t sleep.

I hope I seem like friendly background noise. Like “I don’t get good sleep unless I hear her puttering around”-ambient sound.

I want the freedom to be alone which has me fantasizing and has me craving solitude. (But I’d probably feel lonely if I ended up completely alone. Between family and roommates, I’ve never lived alone in my life.)

It feels like those guys that are so sure they’ll love the post-apocalypse.

You always know what it’s going to be like before you ever experience it. It’s the way humans are built. We build walls in our brains, locked-in ways of thinking. And our brains build scenarios that we can’t help believing.

There’s something powerful and amazing about thinking of all those books that lead protagonists to other worlds being like the pieces of jade that gift transmigrators with hidden spaces.

Someone "enlivened" all those books, turning them into micro-realities just big enough for a person to live out a whole life.

And some of the books have been left for so long–tattered and torn–that they have lost most of their power. They barely have enough strength left to exist. And that’s why most protagonists have a "system" setup that forces them to complete various tasks before they can live out the rest of their life.

The tasks gather energy that keep the reality from collapsing.

Sorting through the pile of books in their protective cases, Peregrine wondered if the transmigrated protagonists were really happy. If they grabbed the chance they had been given and enjoyed their lives. Whatever form those lives happened to take. Or if they failed to survive and their books were returned to the library, ready to be rechecked out by someone else.

Peregrine didn’t know how often books in the library had been returned. He didn’t work in the library.

He worked in a back office and sorted books that arrived in big crates.

He received a pile of protective cases that held books he had to look up in the database and sort by genre. He put them on the cart and someone came to take them away.

Some books were savagely beaten up. As though they’d been printed hundreds of years ago. And others were in pristine condition, recently printed and still active in bookstores. All books were "new," as in, Peregrine had never seen a repeat title.

He didn’t know where the books came from or who they were gathered by. He simply collected and classified them.

But he had an inkling. He’d figured things out.

He knew the secret of the books.

It’s why he’d broken the chain. Why he’d started stealing a book here or there and handed them out to random normal people.

He’d see someone that did a good deed and would drop a book near them. He’d walk through the hospital, listening to stories about the various patients. And he’d pass a book along.

He never forced anyone to enter a book. He simply left an option available. A last Hail Mary Pass for them to enjoy.

Because the world was ending. Or, not the world world, which would continue to spin around as uncaringly as always. But the human world.

The environments where a human could live were running out.

Within what should have been his lifetime, Peregrine knew that the human race was going to go extinct. Dying with most of the other mammals on the planet.

Everyone knew it.

It was all that anyone ever talked about, whether directly or indirectly. Conversations had begun to sound weird around him.

There were signs of quiet panic all over the place.

Those that were going to flame out early had mostly all disappeared.

There were only people like Peregrine left. Those that were patiently waiting for the environment to kill them. Everyone still living their lives as the livable world outside their Zone became smaller and smaller.

There would be years before the end of it all. They were able to continue living in their homes and there was plenty of time to make arrangements.

It was a slow-moving End of the World event.

With everything so clearly laid out, it hadn’t taken him long to begin looking at the books he sorted in a different way. And then he’d begun sneaking some out one by one.

He felt like a fairy. Dropping books here and there to give at least some people a chance at living a full life.

He thought that he might have saved thousands of people. (Feared that he had doomed thousands of people.)